One in 10 Egyptians lives abroad, the head of Egypt’s statistics body CAPMAS said Saturday, announcing the result of the latest census at an official ceremony.

Abu Bakr El-Gendy said Egypt’s population had reached 104.2 million. Some 94.98 million live within Egypt while 9.4 million live abroad.

The figures announced took four years to collate, El-Gendy stated. “Unprecedented mechanisms were utilized in the census to reach its goals,” he added.

Census data revealed that youth aged 15 to 24 years constitute 18.2 percent of the total population, meaning one in five Egyptians is within that age group.

The census also revealed that 18.4 million, at 25.8 percent of the population, are illiterate. Out of that figure, 10.6 million are females, at six of every 10 illiterate.

El-Gendy stated that 68 percent of the population is married.

The country’s president, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, attended the ceremony along with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal, as well as a number of Egypt’s cabinet and senior officials.

El-Sisi praised the efforts of CAPMAS, saying that the government could use these figures to better society.

El-Sisi said he wanted to shed light on the phenomenon of marrying off girls at the age of 12, which is illegal. He called on parents to stop underage marriage, adding that some of these girls are already divorcees.



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